


When Is A Gift Not A Gift (Alison Finds Out)

by Infinitely_Odd



Series: Ghost Stories [4]
Category: Ghosts (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Brief descriptions of an attack, Captain is lowkey gay for mike, F/M, Kitty is adorable, Murder, Not of any of the ghosts, Thomas has the braincell for a little while, attempted humour, brief descriptions of blood, but like only lowkey, etcetc - Freeform, the downsides to alisons sight, torn clothes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 06:30:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19718110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Infinitely_Odd/pseuds/Infinitely_Odd
Summary: Robin sticks his head out the door, literally, beginning to make a hooting noise. He pulls back enough to cry out "INTRUDER!" before racing, presumably, after Kitty.The rest of the ghosts quickly follow. Alison groans, but follows after them anyway. Robin is still shouting and running towards a faraway fence past Pat's tree, he's managed to catch up with Kitty. The rest of the ghosts are hot on their heels but each at different paces- with Julian and Fanny lagging behind for the sake of their dignity.Because then, she realises exactly what, or who, she's looking at. Behind Kitty, staring terrified at the house, is a young girl. She's wearing a tank top and black trousers. Alison breaks into a run, desperately trying to reach her, her heart hammering against her rib cage and her chest seizing up. She prays to whatever god is out there. Please.---Alison's "gift" has it's downsides





	When Is A Gift Not A Gift (Alison Finds Out)

Mike entered the kitchen to find his wife sat at the table, it was a bright Saturday morning, birds chirped, the morning dew was not quite gone from the grass. Her cup of coffee grew cold by the minute, the steam slowly vanishing. The ghosts were probably around the table; Mike decided to buy some time for them to move by making his own cup. As the sleepy haze around his head began to fade, the buzz of the radio filled his ears instead, followed by the heating and pouring of the kettle.

"What're you listening to?" He asked, but was promptly hushed by Alison. Put out slightly, he sat at the table and sipped at his beverage. The coffee warmed him up (the heating was bust again), calmed him down, and woke him. Normally it would be a pop-y station Alison has playing, singing along to whatever's in the charts while making coffee or tidying. That day, though, it was a news station, broadcasting something urgent.

_'The body of sixteen year old Kelsey Chaplin was found late last night in a field. The exact location is still confidential, however Police had confirmed foul play and homicide, although the motive is still to be released to the public. The authorities urge anyone who last saw Kelsey should report any suspicious activity immediately. A memorial for her will be held within the next few days-'_

Mike realised his coffee was still on the table, his limbs frozen. He, too, was staring lifelessly at the radio spewing nonsense about memorials and death and murder, and sixteen year old Kelsey Chaplin. Someone touched his hand, and his head jerks up. It's Alison, staring at him, her brown eyes dark with concern.

"You alright?" She asked, "It's kind of heavy for 9 AM, I know, but..."

Mike places a hand over hers. "It's fine, honestly. We need a reminder the world isn't all sunshine and rainbows." He tries to laugh, but it comes out choked. "She was sixteen though."

Alison nods sadly, patting his hand and standing, staring at something he can't see. "Postman's coming."

"How do you- ah. Never mind. You'd think I'd learn."

"It's cute!" Alison shouts back, Mike flushes and hopes none of the ghosts can see him.

"I'm not cute.." He mutters to himself. Julian shakes his head, but Thomas and Captain share a look and shrug. 

* * *

"RED MAN RED MAN RED MAN!"

"I _know_ Robin!"

The ghosts, as usual, had decided to follow Alison out. Their blabbering was worse than the noise in her head. The white noise. There's something about a murder that has the ability to grab you by the heels and pull you down into the oblivion. Not only that, but that of a minor. A young girl who had her whole life ahead of her. By Alison's side Kitty prances about, much to Fanny's dismay. Kitty can't be much more than twenty, still a child at heart. Even Thomas looks one of the youngest of them, the bullet hole in his side maintaining his youth forever.

Julian is in his 40's, Captain can't be more than that, greying early from stress is right up his street. For his age, Robin must be an elder, thirty maybe, but that was as old as you got in the Stone Age. Pat is 30-40, maybe older, his bright smile making him seem younger than he is. Similarly, Mary is middle aged for her time period. Fanny must be 60, and Humphrey- well, it's difficult to tell.

There's an unusual ache in her heart as she greets the postman, who's always startled at her prompt arrival, and gathers the post. Just as she's about to shut the door, Kitty squeals loudly, and rushes out the half closed door in a puff of smoke. The rest of the ghosts look as bewildered as Alison who shuts the door firmly, having had enough of Kitty for one morning. Robin sticks his head out the door, literally, beginning to make a hooting noise. He pulls back enough to cry out "INTRUDER!" before racing, presumably, after Kitty.

The rest of the ghosts quickly follow. Alison groans, but follows after them anyway. Robin is still shouting and running towards a faraway fence past Pat's tree, he's managed to catch up with Kitty. The rest of the ghosts are hot on their heels but each at different paces- with Julian and Fanny lagging behind for the sake of their dignity. (Although, Alison is much more grateful Julian walked than Fanny.) Eventually all of them reach the fence, crowding round the mysterious person.

While walking she makes an attempt to see who the ghosts are crowding, taking long strides the fence grows ever closer. Captain ushers the ghosts back to give the poor person some room, and for the sake of their own comfort lest they walk through them. The figure is obscured slightly, Alison squints her eyes, trying to catch a glimpse of any features. She notes them. Her heart sinks.

Because then, she realises exactly what, or who, she's looking at. Behind Kitty, staring terrified at the house, is a young girl. She's wearing a tank top and black trousers. Alison breaks into a run, desperately trying to reach her, her heart hammering against her rib cage and her chest seizing up. She prays to whatever god is out there. _Please_.

Her prayers aren't answered.

Alison falls into a sprint, getting closer and closer to the girl. She hopes she's hallucinating the red spatters and holes along the white top, the way her jeans are slashed exposing the red flesh, the dark marks around her neck- two handprints engraved there in purple. Tangled hair, bruised face, blood everywhere. The girl can't be more than sixteen.

All the ghosts quickly move out Alison's way as she collapses onto the fence, the girl staring down at her. Blue eyes stare into brown, they're kind/

"Um," The girl said, looking away in embarrassment, "I'm lost, I think." She looked around, and Alison prays once again that she can't see them. Again, she's ignored. "Are you having a costume party? I love parties! I'm Kelsey, it's nice to meet you." Kelsey holds out a bloody hand. Alison stands, she reaches out in vain. Tears drip onto her pale skin as her hand passes through Kelsey's as if it isn't even there. Kelsey retracts her hand quickly in pain, clutching it to her chest.

"I don't understand," She whispered, face dropping. "Why can't I feel the sun? Why is it so cold?"

The words caught in Alison's throat and choked her. Captain swore under his breath, and turned his back on the girl, striding away a few paces. Even Julian lowered his head, swiping over his face. Kitty's smile dropped instantly. Robin stood as stoic as ever, this was usual for him. Ghosts came and went, this realisation hit everyone eventually. It still hurt though. Thomas and Fanny stood off to the side, not the most emotionally articulate. Pat was the first to go forwards.

"Heya love," He said gently, Kelsey sniffled but looked up. Pat was a ray of sunshine, he put on his bravest face and reached out a hand. "Welcome to being dead. It's not great, but, well I think we're all nice people, if not a tad emotionally constipated." Kelsey snorted, covering her face. "Alison, there, she isn't dead- it's complicated- but she lives over there." He pointed to Button House. "Can you come inside with us? I think we all need to have a long chat."

Kelsey gulped and walked through the fence over the threshold. "I think- I think I can go inside."

"Great!" Pat exclaimed, still holding out his hand. "Come on then, let's go."

Gently, she placed her hand in his, and the group began to trek towards the house.

* * *

"So, you're telling me, that the murdered girl we heard on the news this morning was murdered near here-" Kelsey sniffled, sitting with Pat on the kitchen chairs. The ghosts all shouted in protest.

"Stop using the M-Word," Captain hissed, standing, "You're clearly upsetting her. Alison tell him."

Alison sighed, "Mike, please, she's here. Be careful with wording."

He chuckled sheepishly, "Ah, sorry. So um, we've got Kelsey Chaplin in our house correct?" Alison nodded. Mike exhaled and whistled. "Just our shit luck."

" _Heathen_ ," Fanny glared. Alison ignored her.

"What're we going to do?" She stressed, pacing the length of the kitchen. "We can't just phone up the police and say: 'oh yes here's what happened here's the body you're welcome'. _We'll_ get arrested!"

Robin nodded wisely. "There must be somethin's we can do." Mary said.

"Well if anyone's got any suggestions, please put them forward." Julian said, crossing his arms. "Anything's good at this point." He added bitterly.

"Really helpful guys, thanks."

"What if we just didn't say anything?" Kitty interjected nervously, everyone's heads swivelled round to her. "I mean, do we have to tell people about Kelsey?"

A silence fell over the kitchen as the ghosts and Alison considered this. It was true, they could choose not to say anything. They could hold their tongues. They could let justice run its course, let the police continue to investigate. Alison glanced at Kelsey, biting her lip. The girl was still sniffling, clutching at her pale arms as if she were trying to preserve what little heat she had left.

She knew she couldn't leave it alone.

Thomas cleared his throat and raised a hand. "Can one not make an anonymous tip?"

An incredulous silence fell over the kitchen once again. No one spoke for several minutes, even Kitty was speechless.

"You know," Julian said, wagging a finger. "I think that's the most sensible thing you've ever said."

Kitty snorted into her hand to stifle a laugh, even Kelsey looked like she was holding in giggles. Meanwhile, Thomas looked mortally offended, but Captain cut him off before he could begin one of his rants. "Now Julian, I don't believe that was necessary," He turned back to Thomas. "He wasn't entirely wrong, however."

Before Thomas could begin a rant on both the Captain and Julian, Alison spoke up. "That's it. I could make an anonymous tip."

Mike raised an eyebrow. "You could, yeah. It's anonymous, can't be traced back to you...sounds ideal honestly. All you have to do is get Kelsey to tell you what happened, then you call up."

"Seems fairly straightforward to me," Pat said. The rest of the ghosts all nodded in agreement. Alison knelt down next to Kelsey, so they were almost eye-to-eye.

"Kelsey," She said softly. "We want to make sure whoever did this to you gets justice. But in order to do that you need to tell us what happened and who did it."

The girl sniffled, then raised her head and stared into Alison's eyes. "Okay." She said softly. "I'll do it." This time her voice was a little louder. "I can do this."

"Yes youse can!" Mary joined in. The ghosts cheered and a bubble of laughter formed in Kelsey's throat. Pulling out her phone, Alison dialled the number Mike had pulled up for her, and waited.

* * *

"So then Kelsey and I began talking about suitors, and would you believe how one gentleman treated her? Well, I'm reluctant to even call him a gentleman, a beast is more like it. He held hands with another girl! Can you believe it?"

Kitty, Kelsey and Fanny were all sitting at one of the tables together. Fanny scoffed. "Men are not to be trusted."

Across the room, the boys all turned their heads towards the group. Kitty giggled while Fanny pointed at each one of them. "Died in a sex scandal, overly bossy, falls for anyone who looks in your general direction," Her face squinted in distaste, "Ate _bum_ , and-" She looked at Pat, faltering for a minute. "Asked Alison to kill your wife."

"I apologised!" Pat wailed.

"I know," Fanny said, sighing. "To be perfectly honest you're the best one of all of us, Pat." Here, no one had any objections. The atmosphere was suddenly broken by Alison and Mike running into the room and turning on the news. The ghosts quickly got into the spaces where they could see the TV and not risk running into Mike or Alison should they stand up suddenly.

'BREAKING NEWS' crawled along the bottom of the screen, and the correspondent they'd chosen for that story took centre stage.

"Breaking News: after an anonymous tip about the murder of Kelsey Chaplin, the police have made an arrest. Thirty seven year old Kevin Doncaster, a family friend, has pleaded guilty to the murder of the young girl and is now going on trial. The tip alerted police of several discrepancies in Doncaster's alibi which lead to a more thorough investigation into the man himself. The family of Kelsey Chaplin have issued a statement thanking the anonymous tipper and condemning Doncaster. More on this story as it unfolds-"

Alison switched off the TV and sat back in the sofa. "Well, that's it. What do you think Kelsey?"

"It's warm!" The girl shouted. A bright light enveloped the living room, coming from behind Alison. Kelsey was bathed in a bright light, her clothes were fixed, her hair smooth and her skin back to its original unblemished state. Alison raised an arm to shield her eyes from the heavenly light, while the ghosts stared at it in respective shock and awe. A 'thank you' echoed throughout the house before the light engulfed the girl and shrank instantly, leaving nothing but pearly drops on the floor.

Mike reached out and took Alison's hand, staring at his wife with great concern in his eyes. Gently, he thumbed over her hand. "Is everything okay?"

"I think she's gone..." Alison breathed out, not entirely sure what had happened. Her eyes came back into focus, everyone was staring at her and nodding softly.

"What?" Mike asked, eyes wide. "She's gone? Like, moved onto the afterlife?"

The last of Kelsey's tears dripped from the back of the sofa onto the floor, glittering and shimmering. Alison wiped her face and sat back down next to Mike, Kitty and Pat joined her, while the rest of the ghosts remained close behind. This wasn't the first to move on, and certainly wouldn't be the last.

"Yeah." Alison said. "She's gone."

**Author's Note:**

> Heya fam, how's you! This took me a lil while to write just cause, but it's been an idea I've had for ages now. But uh, yeah, so, here it is!
> 
> Give me some feedback, hope it's all okay, and thank you for reading!  
> Ty to the Ghiscord as always and have a good morning/day/afternoon/night wherever you are!
> 
> \- Rachael xxx


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